1. The Vision for Kuali Student
Richard Spencer Senior IT Strategist Information Technology
eStrategy Town Hall
June 21, 2007

2. A brief history of student systemsBC
paper based processes, forms, information silos
the customer had to help us run the institution
SRS
batch systems, on-line records, flat files, reports
developed in-house
SIS
support for core processes
more work for other staff, some support for customers
ERPs
SSS
Next generation enterprise system
Community source development

3. Goals for a new student system
Scalable, rule based, self-service processes
Strong focus on needs of all end users
students
faculty
staff
An architecture that:
makes it easy to modify business processes
allows business processes to easily span systems
supports complete academic and business processes
Applications that meet department needs
Admissions, Awards, Registration, etc. have specific roles in delivering services that cross department boundaries
Use IT to help end users achieve their goals

4. What is Kuali Student? Kuali Student is:
a new student system that supports users and change
based on UBC’s leading edge, award winning SIS
a modular, configurable system
a system built using a “service oriented architecture” (SOA)
a five year project
a community source/open source project
a next generation student system

5. What is “community source”?
A small group of institutions work together on a project, and agree on:
vision
goals
system design and technology
resource commitments
project plan
responsibilities and deliverables
deployment
UBC is the lead institution on Kuali Student

6. Why a next generation system?
Exponential growth in:
processing speed
memory size
network bandwidth
storage capacity
The power of doubling:
grains of rice on a chess board:
64 squares
1 grain on the first square, 2 on the second, 4 on the third,...
1.85 x 1019 grains
900 years of rice production at current rates

7. Increasing computer power
logarithmic plot
1055
Integrated
Circuit
Transistor
Vacuum
tube
Relay
mechanical
Electro-
1035
Calculations per second per $1,000
All human brains
One human brain
1015
One mouse brain
One insect brain
10-5
Ray Kurzweil, “The Singularity is Near”

8. The Kuali Student vision
A new system that is:
student-centric
learning, learner and institution agnostic
modular, technology neutral – runs everywhere
easy to support new business processes
an open source, community source, project
use technology to realize a compelling new vision
(and faculty and staff...)

9. Student-centric support
help users develop learning plans and achieve goals
use what we know when providing services
anticipate people’s needs
suggest valid choices, apply and explain rules
integrate processes
make tasks simpler and easier
provide simple, reliable, trustworthy online solutions
a “concierge” to support students, faculty and staff

10. The concierge Anticipate people’s needs Apply and explain the rules
review accomplishments and plans
suggest desirable or required actions
present the applications required to complete them
Apply and explain the rules
know all the relevant institutional rules and requirements
review user’s situation, monitor actions being taken
present choices that satisfy rules and requirements
Integrate processes
present more than one application as required
Learn from experience
use artificial intelligence to make the concierge smarter

11. “it is your responsibility....”
UBC Calendar insert, 1999*
* when I was Registrar

12. The challenge of change
Focus on understanding and meeting
the needs of users
The goal is not to reduce the number of people
It is to give them ways to do more
managing change may be the hardest part
of Kuali Student

13. Identity A person is a high level entity
a person has roles, group memberships, etc
student, employee, faculty, alumni are roles
Any person can establish an on-line identity
easy an to get an account with an authenticator
verify IDs as people build their relationship
federation of existing IDs should be encouraged
Separate authentication and authorization
authentication confirms the owner of the ID has logged in
authorization is based on person’s relationships and roles
access to resources may initially be very restricted
an on-line ID is for access, as well as security

14. New entities support all types of learning the learning unit entity
including non-credit and non traditional
the learning unit entity
course; single lecture in a course; 15 minute student presentation in a course
participation in community service
any activity that the student wants to include on a formal or co-curricular transcript
a “learning unit number” is like a SKU...
learning results, learning plans
entities that represent transcripts and programs
don’t restrict what people and institutions can do

15. Remove constraints flexible time frames
measure time in years, days, hours, minutes and seconds
support all institutions and types of program
2 year colleges to doctoral/research
non-credit, non-traditional
no built in assumptions about programs, program approval, etc.
international
easily handle different languages and conventions
minimize or eliminate system constraints

16. Modular, technology neutral
different institutions can build applications that will work together
applications can use different technologies
applications can be integrated with existing systems
open source and commercial applications can be combined
a critical mass of applications will deliver a complete next generation system
deploy what you need, when you need it

17. Easy to change processes
portal for user interface
standards based
flexible and powerful
rules engines for internal process logic
workflow for end-to-end business processes
processes can cross systems
encourage and support innovation and change
it’s OK to customize.....
your practices, not someone else’s “best practices”

18. Services and SOA business processes are decomposed into services
are autonomous, agnostic, and reusable
are defined by service contracts and interface definitions
use standard data models and XML schemas
include:
process or control services (workflow, orchestration)
business services (rules engines)
infrastructure services (identity, portal, database services)
Service oriented architecture:
uses web services to loosely couple components
supports business processes that cross applications
Services and SOA makes process change easier

19. Conceptual system architecture
Concierge
Portal
Presentation layer
Service bus
Contact
Admission
Enrolment
Business services
Process
agnostic services
Concierge
Learning plan service
Evaluation service
Awards assignment
Infrastructure
services
Rules services
Workflow
services
Identity
services
Data services
Person data
academic history
awards

20. Preliminary plan for applications
customer contact
admission
curriculum development
enrolment
degree audit and academic evaluation
awards
student financials
scheduling
applications can be used with existing systems

21. Community source development
investors:
establish a board, functional and technical councils
agree to develop and implement specific applications
have direct input into functions and features
share resources
use common standards, schemas and interface definitions
work together on service oriented analysis
build and share services
meet agreed development and delivery schedules
commercial installation and support is encouraged
larger community ensures sustained development
build on uPortal, Sakai and Kuali Finance experience

22. Current Kuali Student founders
University of British Columbia
Florida State University
University of Maryland
San Joaquin Delta College
UC Berkeley
Partners
MIT
Carnegie Mellon

23. Next steps Complete project plan for a complete student system
Submit a funding proposal to the Mellon Foundation
Continue to develop the vision
model the “concierge” concept
Service oriented analysis of key business processes
Develop the entity and data models
Complete a reference technical architecture
Implement the technical infrastructure
Develop and deliver applications

24. Challenges Resources, funding Entity models, standards and schemas
True service analysis and orientation
Blending stand alone applications with service orientation
Web services for loose coupling
Combining modules developed at different schools
Combining open source and commercial components
Using commercial service providers to implement and support systems and system components
We have the vision, technology and people
We need funding and an enthusiasm for change

25. More information http://student.osnext.org/